Friday, February 19, 2016

What Is The Center

“Of all the brouhahas of the universe, human problem is the problem.”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

A Catholic cleric by the name of Nicolas Copernicus was born today, February 19, in 1473. He was also a mathematician and astronomer who proposed the idea that the Sun rather than the Earth was at the center of our universe.

The idea that man is not at the center of everything.

How often have you run into folks who act even today as if they themselves are the center of the universe? There is an actual word for these type of people. They are called egoists, people who believe (knowingly or not) in egoism.

Egoism is a belief that an individual's own self-interest is the reason for all of their conscious actions and is a valid reason for all of those actions. How we measure our own self-interest is measured by our ego.

We all have some level of self-interest.

Where a person falls on the spectrum of ego, self-interest, or any other definition can create debate on the value of self-centered action. Does a self-centered person do everything at the expense of others? Or is it done for the attention of self-importance?

I have self-interest in preservation of my life on a biological level. But I also believe it takes a community of people working together in some fashion to live a great life. I am not talking about communism, socialism or a hippy ideal. Nor am I talking about a feudalistic society on the other end of working together.

Decency in helping your fellow human.

If we step outside of our own self-interest and help others, we start to see how our life is impacted for the better. We start to see a better world evolve. If the "human problem is the problem" then "human solution is the solution."